Returning to Change
by sailorprincessserenity
Summary: Sasuke has killed Orochimaru and hopes to return to the village. When he tracks down an ANBU to inquire about Sakura, he gets more than he bargained for.
1. Chapter 1

MY crazy little one-shot about seeing someone for the first time in many years and finding them, shall we say, different.

The small village bustled peacefully; the city's markets the loudest part of the city besides the music concert in the park. If you flew high above the town, you might hear light footfalls from high above the streets. The light sound came from two figures crossing the city. One of them was far behind the other, seemingly tracking them, occasionally ducking out of sight when the first figure turned around.

The second figure continued to race across the clay rooftops behind the first figure, only duck out of sight again, bobbing and weaving like a frightened rabbit to avoid any contact. The first figure cursed, having hoped to get a good look at the person chasing her. She was pretty sure it was a man but she would have to see him head on to be sure. She smirked, glad for her ANBU mask and head covering to partially disguise her identity.

Uchiha Sasuke had been on his own for two months ever since he had killed Orochimaru. He planned to catch any ANBU who came near his hideout and interrogate them about the changes in Konohagakure before he returned. This first ANBU might be hard to catch before they discovered that he was there. They had lightning fast reflexes and had nearly caught him several times before.

Ahead of him, Haruno Sakura took an enormous bound into the forest. She pulled ahead of her pursuer, intending to wait for him and ask him who he was and what he was doing following her. Her knee high black ninja boots tapped lightly against the tree boughs as her Jonin vest rippled in the wind of her speed. Inside her head, her brain was busy calculating the best place to stop. Her jade eyes roamed over the woods and noted a good spot to pause and get her bearings. The branch only slightly wobbled as she landed, twisting in midair to face the way she had come.

She didn't have long to wait, her light pink hair stirring in the light breeze as she slipped off the annoying head covering she had to wear. The black tattoo on her right shoulder contrasted sharply with her pale skin. Her porcelain mask was shaped into the usual face for that of an ANBU with a small marking on the forehead to mark her as a captain and medic ninja.

He landed on a branch opposite her, noting the tattoo on the right shoulder but failing to notice the markings on her mask. Luckily for her, those had been invented after he had left otherwise he would have attacked her without question. The unusual shoes were not left unnoticed but were duly recorded as well to remember.

"Why are you here?" He was the first to speak, his arms crossed over his chest.

"To accomplish a mission given to me," Sakura said, acting the part of a young, inexperienced ANBU member. She was glad for her facial mask as it masked her expressions and face from his sight.

"What mission?"

"To deliver a message to the Lord Kazekage. Don't ask me what it said, I don't know."

He cursed silently before asking, "Do you know who I am?"

She opened her mouth to talk but closed it immediately, turning away from Sasuke to look towards the middle of the woods. She jumped back, her feet takking on the tree limb as the branch she had previously been standing on exploded from a clay bomb dropped from above.

"Kuso! Damn you, Deidara!" she yelled, flicking a kunai towards the giant clay bird. Sasuke, having landed near her, heard her muttering "cut off both of his arms, he has mouths in his feet, cut off his legs, where's he going to have mouths now!"

"You still underestimate me and my power! I have mouths everywhere, even in my chest," he cried, sticking out his chest as he perched precariously on his giant bird. "Hello, Uchiha. Why were you talking to an ANBU captain?"

"You're an ANBU captain?!"

"Yes! Ever since you left, we changed the uniform so ANBU captains are only identifiable by a small mark on the mask," Sakura informed him, sending off another kunai towards Dei which hit his bird and the letter bomb promptly exploded, leaving him to fall to the forest floor.

"Kuchiyose: Summoning Jutsu! Pakkun, I need the rest of my team and Kyu's (short for Kyuubi, a codename for Naruto) team, stat!" she said, holding a small dog up to her face before hurling him in the direction of her squad. To Deidara she said, "I gave you enough chances after that fight two months ago when you nearly killed the Kazekage, Gaara."

"What!?" Sasuke exclaimed, his face whitening.

"I forgot, Orochimaru never found out. Gaara became Kazekage but was kidnapped so that his bijuu could be extracted. The Akatsuki succeeded but their plan was thwarted by the arrival of a team from Konoha and some from Suna. A Suna elder used a forbidden jutsu to bring Gaara back to life after the containment for Shukaku was smashed so that he could be restrained once more," Sakura said before quickly drawing her blade, jumping down and stabbing Deidara through the heart. She wiped her blade and jumped back up, landing next to Sasuke.

"You know, I should really know the name of the person who killed me. It feels shameful being killed by a person in a mask," Deidara complained, coughing up blood.

Sakura looked down at him with something akin to pity before jumping back to Deidara's side, whispering her name in his ear and then knocking him out so he would die painlessly and not tell Sasuke her name.

The moment of silence was broken as the two ANBU teams thumped to a halt next to her. Sakura wordlessly embraced everyone in her team, which was made up of Tenten, Hinata, Temari, Ino, and herself. Naruto's team was made up of himself, Shikamaru, Neji, and Choji. The person who made the teams uneven was Sasuke, who watched them curiously from a branch above.

"You have pink hair," Sasuke remarked. "I knew someone who had pink hair. I hope she grew up and got over me leaving. I bet she's at least a Chunin. I have a question. What has Haruno Sakura been up to?"

"You mean Haruno Sakura, the Fifth Hokage's apprentice, Haruno Sakura, the best medic in the village, Haruno Sakura, one of the lead Jonin in the village?" Sakura asked, disguising the bitter tone in her voice behind curiosity.

"Yes," he sighed. "Will you give her a message for me? Tell her that I will be back to see her again and to stay. I promise."

"Fine," she said, signaling the rest of them to leave. "I'll hold you to your promise, Sasuke," she said, removing her mask before forming a hand sign and disappearing in a swirl of leaves, leaving behind a shell-shocked Uchiha and a dead Akatsuki member as all the proof that that scene had ever happened.

You know you want to press the little button so review and make me HAPPY and HYPER!!!!


	2. The Trial

This was originally just going to be a one shot story but someone asked me for the next chapter so I'm turning it into a story.

"Kyu, if you call me baa-chan again, I will punch you into next Tuesday!"

"Hn?" Sasuke listened closely, picking up more of the conversation as he came closer to the talking group. He absentmindedly blew one of his bluish-black bangs back from his face and loosened the grip on his katana.

"Why would you do that to me, baa-chan?"

"Even if you are very dear to me, I am not a baa-chan! Raaargh!"

"Would you two knock it off! You're supposed to be Hokage and the future Hokage so stop acting up!"

"But it's fun to tease baa-chan! Ooowww!" Sasuke jumped back as the person who had been hit whizzed past him and was surprised to see the perso n wave and say, "Hi teme!"

Naruto thwacked into a tree, making a big hole and a lot of smoke. The other two voices made their way the last few feet of the way towards the cloud that obscured his vision of them, but he had a pretty good guess who they were.

"Geez, Sakura! That wasn't nice!"

"I'm not nice," she informed Naruto, hands on her hips. She slipped off her mask and wryly turned towards Sasuke. "He's barely changed a bit."

"That's evident, Sakura."

"So, Sasuke. You really have changed. I take it you killed Orochimaru," Tsunade said, combing wood chips out of her hair where they had fallen in the explosion following Naruto's flight across the woods.

"Yes, but I haven't killed Itachi," he replied, looking at her curiously. "Why are you out of the village right now?"

"This coincides with you. We are on our way to the trial of Uchiha Madara, Uchiha Itachi, and Hoshigake Kisame," Tsunade said, exchanging a meaningful look with Sakura.

"Don't say a word, Sasuke. Just come along and put this uniform on. We might as well give you an ANBU tattoo as well," Naruto said, throwing the ANBU uniform into Sasuke's face and pulling him over to Tsunade. Tsunade performed the jutsu to create the unique mark on Sasuke's left shoulder and went to the next clearing to talk with Sakura, leaving Sasuke to change.

"I really don't understand this at all," Sasuke grunted, pulling on the skintight suit. His long arms fit neatly through the holes in the vest as he pulled it on. His wolf mask actually nearly made him look like a wolf what with his slightly spiked hair.

"Neither do I," Naruto grumbled,, looking sourly at the place where the two women had disappeared. "All know is that those three are on trial but I don't know what for. Sakura and a few others disappeared for a week and came back with those three."

"Wait, Sakura helped bring those three back!?"

"Yep."

"That aside Naruto, I guess they didn't explain because you would naturally start attacking someone and start running after me," Sasuke said through the mask, flipping back to his feet and heading to where the others waited.

Sasuke stood next to Sakura, in between her and Naruto, watching the other rulers file into the room. As the three prisoners were brought in, he tensed, looking them down for any weapons. It was strange, he thought. Those three could have brought down the majority of the people in the room but the only one who showed that tendency was the one who was called Uchiha Madara.

"Before we begin this trial, you have the chance to tell your story. Please proceed if you wish to," Tsunade said, gesturing for the prisoners to sit on the chairs.

Kisame remained standing, staring at the board of Kages. "Since my story is so interwoven with Itachi's, I might as well tell both of our stories in one go. This is how it began."

FLASHBACK

_Kisame stood by his best friend, watching the Konoha shinobi carefully before asking, "Itachi, what's on your mind?"_

_The teenage Uchiha looked up at the Mist Shinobi, sighing as he began his story. "One of my friends has been killed by another Uchiha. It's obvious that he was killed by a Sharingan technique that is quite complicated, so of course, everyone suspects me. Furthermore, Kisame, it just seems strange, not right. Like there's something missing from the puzzle."_

_"Itachi, I'll help you figure this out. Lord Third might not mind as long as I stay mainly out of sight."_

_"Itachi, hold up!" Kisame held up a hand to stem the flood of emotion from his normally calm friend. "Basically, Uchiha Madara is still alive, and he's threatening to kill Sasuke unless you take responsibility for the murder of the Uchiha clan, which will be committed by him!? Kami, this is unlucky."_

_"I have no other choice, Kisame. I have to join the Akatsuki, but leave Konohagakure enough clues that they can figure out the truth or let Sasuke kill me," Itachi said, looking off into the setting sun._

_"Not without me, you aren't, Itachi," Kisame said, clapping a hand on the other man's shoulder and pulling him to his feet. They clasped hands, outlined by the setting sun, joining in friendship against even betrayal._

_Looking back at his former village, Itachi fled, the memory of his last moments with his brother filling him with an overwhelming sorrow._

_At his side, Kisame was filled with the similar memories of explaining to the Mizukage of his friend's need and how he wanted to help him no matter what the cost. He had gained the approval he wanted but still felt guilty._

END FLASHBACK

"And so, that is the story of how Itachi and I came to join the Akatsuki," Kiame concluded, shrugging and sitting back down. The five rulers who sat before him were all shocked, except for Tsunade, who had heard the story before.

"Uchiha Madara, what do you have to say for yourself?" Tsunade asked, keeping her facial expression from morphing to loathing and revulsion. When he looked up at her with those evil eyes, she gave an involuntary shudder of loathing.

"Nothing," he whispered malevolently. "He spoke the truth. I have no regrets about my actions. The shinobi villages are corrupted. They deserve to be destroyed. Mwahahahahahahahaha! Hahahahahahahahahah! Heheheheheheheheheheh (AN: I just love evil laughter. It's so evil.)!"

"OK," Sakura whispered to Sasuke. "Are you sure he's your relative?"

To her surprised, Sasuke chuckled quietly and whispered back, "Very distant. Veeery distant."

"Look who decided to get a sense of humor," Naruto murmured quietly, laughing under his breath.

"This feels almost like the old days," Sakura added, smiling at her fellow teammates.

"If everyone will please be seated while the rulers adjourn to the next room to determine their final decision, based on the convict's testimonies," Tsunade announced, leading the group of Kages into the other room.

"Due to recent discoveries, the shinobi villages have decided to pardon both Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigake Kisame, but Uchiha Madara shall receive the death penalty from an appointed executioner," the Mizukage announced, smiling at Kisame.

A few seconds later, Sakura had jumped into the arms of Itachi and Kisame. "Itachi-onii-san! Kisame-onii-san! Thank kami you got off that easy!"

"WTF, Naruto!"


End file.
